Once in a Lifetime Photo Captures Rainbow and Lightning at Same Time

Greg McCown told Weather.com that he’s been trying for seven years to capture a photo of a rainbow and lightning bolt in one shot. The 42-year-old realtor who has a passion for photography saw it happen once when he was driving to work and said it left such an impression that he knew he had to shoot that image someday.

While by day he sells houses, during his downtime he shoots rather magnificent photos of the natural world where he lives in Tucson, Arizona and the surrounding area and even teaches photography workshops for people who aspire to do what he does.

McCown finally succeeded in capturing the once in a lifetime moment of a lightning bolt striking the ground at the same time a rainbow appeared in the sky over Marana, a small town just to the northwest of Tucson.

He explained to Weather.com that a basic DSLR camera kit is enough, but it’s not an easy quest “as you have to guess where the lightning will strike,” adding, “Our reaction time to see lightning and hit the trigger in time to catch it just are not fast enough. So I used a lightning trigger – this is a small device that sits on top of the camera, senses the lightning and fires the trigger.”